Opportunities
for usability design

The introduction of the
standards ISO 13407 and ISO TR 18529 presents a number of opportunities to the
usability community by creating the potential for new alliances. It is intended
that the HSL model will considerably increase these opportunities for the UK
Defence community, now and on completion of its conversion to an International
Standard.

Process models offer the
potential to change the custom software business model, forming an alliance
with the customer. There is a sector of the software supply industry that depends
on poor usability for economic survival. The strategy is to bid at below cost
for fixed-price competitively-tendered supply against a contracted set of requirements,
to deliver a system that meets the requirements (and so obtain payment) but
which is unusable, thus leading to large quantities of profitable post-design
support.

The inclusion of HFI PRA
(or for office IT, ISO 13407) in the contract, including its use for assessment
purposes, frustrates this strategy in a way that methodologies, guidelines,
handbooks, or expert consultants cannot. Post contract award, the use of process
assessment and process improvement can complement mandated deliverables as management
tools and financial incentives.

Opportunities
for software management and design

Software and System Engineering
have made a move from method to process, e.g. from SSADM and Information Engineering
to the development of standards such as ISO 15504, the Software Engineering
Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM), ISO 12207 and ISO 15288. The development
of a process model for user-centred design that is compatible with engineering
models and quality standards enables usability professionals to form new alliances
(with quality managers, process architects and Software Process Improvement
initiatives), and to take advantage of accepted initiatives for process improvement.
For example, ISO 9001:2000 includes a requirement for Continuous Improvement
(CI) of selected processes.

The availability of a process
model for the Human-System Lifecycle eases its inclusion in the scope of Continuous
Improvement. Similar benefits can be obtained from its compatibility with CMM
and ISO 15504. It is also important to note that globalisation and international
collaboration are forcing convergence on single standards, in contrast to the
profusion of methodology guides and standards in the 1980's. The HSL model (and
ISO 13407) fit into this class of standards. As the new version of ISO 12207
(incorporating a usability process based on ISO TR 18529) and ISO 15288 (incorporating
Human Factors issues) emerge, there will be further benefits to be obtained.

There is a large academic
and corporate interest in understanding how to make structured Process Improvement
work in the fields of software and system engineering and at a business level.
These initiatives should take account of human sciences contributions at both
the cognitive and organisational levels (Clegg, 1996): · The HF community has
much to contribute to understanding Process Improvement for processes beyond
those that deliver usability · The social and human science aspects of organisational
change have yet to be investigated fully in the context of process maturity
· the limits to existing process models need to be understood, e.g. how variables
in users, tasks, technology affect the relation between process and outcome.
Jokela (2000) has started to investigate the basis for conducting assessment
and Process Improvement, with consideration given to non-process perspectives.

Opportunities
for business and quality metrics

An alliance can be made
between usability engineering and business-level metrics. For example, in Europe
the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM, 1999) excellence model
is becoming widely adopted for organisational benchmarking (equivalent models
are used in the US and Japan). The approach and content of the EFQM are compatible
with the HSL model, offering the opportunity for operability process metrics
to be included at corporate level. The World Wide Web has changed the importance
of usability for many organisations. As Nielsen (1999) has pointed out "In product
design and software design, customers pay first and experience usability later.
On the web, users experience usability first and pay later." Business therefore
becomes critically dependent on usability. As a result, the component of the
EFQM related to customer results becomes largely concerned with user-centred
design. The HSL model (and ISO TR 18529) offer a way to assess the likelihood
of achieving usability in a manner that is compatible with EFQM in the context
of e-commerce.

Opportunities
for government and citizenship

The increasing role of
evaluation in the public sector (Chelimsky & Shadish, 1997) offers both an opportunity
and a challenge to usability professionals. The demand from government has shifted
from regularity and propriety in investment of public monies to the demonstration
of effectiveness of the operational system. The ability to measure the extent
to which user needs are being addressed has the potential to deliver a powerful
metric at programme level. HSL assessments (whether external or self-assessments)
can be used as valuable Performance Indicators at programme or project level.